Many military vehicles such trucks or armored personnel carriers are capable of towing another vehicle, which is commonly a trailer. The towing vehicle, the trailer and their hitch connection must endure the rigors of off-road travel. Occasionally body modifications are made to fielded military vehicles and such modifications may extend the vehicle body toward or over the hitch hardware of these vehicles. In such cases, the distance between the modified vehicle and second, towed vehicle is reduced, and the vehicles are less able to turn without colliding.
My hitch adapter solves the above problem while maintaining the durability of the connection between the vehicles. The adapter has a beam at whose one end is a lunette that swings on a hook of a vehicle. Chains between the beam and the rear of the vehicle limit the beam's outboard swing about the hook. At the other end of the beam is a plate to which are fixed flat parallel jaw members which receive a lunette of another vehicle. The plate bears on the other end of the beam and pivots on a stud there, and a nut on the stud presses the plate to the other end of the beam with selected force to effect controlled resistance to pivoting of the plate. My adapter optionally includes means to limit the pivot of the plate relative to the beam so as to control lateral tilt between the vehicles.